Castle Rising (UK Parliament constituency)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Castle Rising Borough constituency |
|
|---|---|
| Created: | 1558 |
| Abolished: | 1832 |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| Members: | two |
Castle Rising was a parliamentary borough in Norfolk, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1558 until 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act. Its famous members of Parliament included the future Prime Minister Robert Walpole and the diarist Samuel Pepys.
Contents |
[edit] History
The borough extended over four parishes - Castle Rising, Roydon, North Wootton and South Wootton, in rural Norfolk to the north-east of King's Lynn. Castle Rising had once been a market town and seaport, but long before the Reform Act had declined to little more than a village. In 1831, the population of the borough was 888, and contained 169 houses.
Castle Rising was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote was vested in the owners of particular properties ("burgage tenements"), and that consequently the absolute right to nominate both the MPs could be bought and sold. Although it was possible for the landowner to create multiple voters by giving a reliable nominee notional ownership of the tenements - as was done in many other burgage boroughs - in Castle Rising the number of voters was kept as low as possible, and contested elections were almost unknown.
The Lord of the Manor invariably owned a majority of the burgage tenements, though other influential local families were generally allowed to select the second MP. At the start of the 18th century, the borough belonged to the Walpole family, and Sir Robert Walpole (Britain's first Prime Minister) began his parliamentary career here. Later in the century the Walpoles still nominated one MP, and the Earl of Suffolk the other. By 1816 the patronage had passed to the Earl of Cholmondeley and Richard Howard.
Castle Rising was abolished as a constituency by the Reform Act.
[edit] Members of Parliament
[edit] 1558-1640
- 1558-1571: Sir Nicholas L'Estrange
- 1586-1587: Philip Woodhouse
- 1604-1611: Thomas Monson
- 1604-1611: Sir R Townshend
- 1621-1622: John Wilson
- 1621-1622: Robert Spiller
- 1628-1629: Sir Robert Cotton
[edit] 1640-1832
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 1640 | Sir Christopher Hatton [1] | Royalist | Sir John Holland | Parliamentarian | |||
| 1641 | Sir Robert Hatton | Royalist | |||||
| September 1642 | Hatton disabled from sitting - seat vacant | ||||||
| 1645 | John Spelman | ||||||
| December 1648 | Spelman and Holland excluded in Pride's Purge - both seats vacant | ||||||
| 1653 | Castle Rising was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | ||||||
| January 1659 | John Fielder | Gaybon Goddard | |||||
| May 1659 | Not represented in the restored Rump | ||||||
| April 1660 | John Spelman | Sir John Holland | |||||
| 1661 | Sir Robert Paston | Robert Steward | |||||
| February 1673 | Sir John Trevor | ||||||
| November 1673 | Samuel Pepys | ||||||
| 1679 | Sir Robert Howard | James Hoste | |||||
| 1685 | Sir Nicholas L'Estrange | Thomas Howard | |||||
| 1689 | Sir Robert Howard | Robert Walpole | |||||
| 1698 | Thomas Howard | ||||||
| January 1701 | Robert Walpole | Whig | |||||
| April 1701 | Robert Cecil | ||||||
| December 1701 | The Earl of Ranelagh | ||||||
| February 1702 | Marquess of Hartington | ||||||
| July 1702 | Sir Thomas Littleton | Whig | Horatio Walpole, senior | ||||
| May 1705 | Sir Robert Clayton | Whig | |||||
| November 1705 | William Feilding | ||||||
| October 1710 | Robert Walpole [2] | Whig | |||||
| December 1710 | Horatio Walpole, senior | ||||||
| 1713 | Horatio Walpole, junior | Whig | |||||
| 1715 | Lieutenant-General Charles Churchill | ||||||
| 1724 | The Earl of Mountrath | ||||||
| 1734 | Thomas Hanmer | ||||||
| 1737 | Viscount Andover | ||||||
| 1745 | Richard Rigby | Whig | |||||
| 1747 | The Lord Luxborough | Hon. Thomas Howard | |||||
| 1754 | Hon. Horace Walpole | ||||||
| 1757 | Charles Boone | ||||||
| 1768 | Thomas Whately | Jenison Shafto | |||||
| 1771 | Crisp Molineux | ||||||
| 1772 | Lord Guernsey | ||||||
| 1774 | Alexander Wedderburn [3] | Robert Mackreth | |||||
| 1775 | Hon. Charles Finch | ||||||
| 1777 | John Chetwynd Talbot | ||||||
| 1782 | Major Sir James Erskine | ||||||
| 1784 | Charles Boone | Walter Sneyd | |||||
| 1790 | Henry Drummond | ||||||
| 1794 | Charles Bagot-Chester | ||||||
| 1796 | Horatio Churchill | ||||||
| 1802 | Peter Isaac Thellusson | ||||||
| 1806 | Richard Sharp | ||||||
| 1807 | Charles Bagot | ||||||
| 1808 | Fulk Greville Howard | Tory | |||||
| 1812 | Augustus Cavendish-Bradshaw | Tory | |||||
| 1817 | Earl of Rocksavage | Tory | |||||
| 1822 | Lord William Cholmondeley | Tory | |||||
| 1832 | Constituency abolished | ||||||
Notes
- ^ Hatton was also elected for Higham Ferrers, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Castle Rising
- ^ Walpole was also elected for King's Lynn, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Castle Rising
- ^ Wedderburn was also elected for Okehampton, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Castle Rising
[edit] References
- Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [2]
- Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1961)
- J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
- J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
- Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
